[SOLVED] Can i use normal PC graphics card on a Mac?

[cybot_x1024]

Just as the question is phrased, can i use normal PC graphics card in a Mac PC?
I have a friend who has a Mac that got its radeon based PCIe graphics card blown off recently, and wanted to know if a PC radeon card would work in the mac. Are there any differences between the two other than drivers? And other than graphics cards, can i also ose a PC's hard drive and maybe PC ram on a mac?
Thanx in advance.

 

[ulysses35]

for sure the RAM and HDD will work providing the MAC can accept either and IDE or SATA HDD that you currently have. I have canablised several mcs over the years for RAM for my office PC's.

Graphics cards may need to have the BIOS on them flashed to work - risky... but not impossible.

 

[cybot_x1024]

so if i change the sata hdd on a mac, for example a bigger WD hard drive, i can install the Mac OS and boot from the new hdd with no issue? I had always thought it would reject things such as ram and hdd and gpu due to them not bearing a mac firmware or something.
Where can i get bioses for mac vga cards? ive tried googling around and cant find any.
I really appreciate your help help and information.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

I did have my Apple certification until recently. From what I've seen, should have no issue with the hard drive. Graphics card, may call Apple. Try 1-800-my-apple

 

[Deleted member 978]

so if i change the sata hdd on a mac, for example a bigger WD hard drive, i can install the Mac OS and boot from the new hdd with no issue? I had always thought it would reject things such as ram and hdd and gpu due to them not bearing a mac firmware or something.
Where can i get bioses for mac vga cards? ive tried googling around and cant find any.
I really appreciate your help help and information.

You don't say what version Mac you have? Intel based Mac or G5 or G4?

I've used an ATI X1900, ATI 3870, ATI 4870 in my MacPro rev 1,1 (2007). The 4870 is PCIe 2.0 capable and my old MacPro doesn't have PCIe 2.0 spec slot, but the card will work in a PCIe 1.1 spec just don't have full bandwidth (and from I can tell doesn't seem to matter). What card you can use is really determine by what EFI (firmware) version the video card supports. My rev 1,1 MacPro uses a EFI32, but newer rev MacPro's use EFI64 ... EFI64 firmware can work with either type of video card, but the EFI32 firmware needs to have EFI32 support in the graphics card (if the graphics card only supports EFI64 then you'll be out of luck).